Learning to be a Mongolian nomadic herder, Part 2

The Mongolian summer ger camp where I am staying is made up of one family with their elderly parents and all their combined livestock. My host family has one ger, with my smaller auxiliary ger next door. The grandparents live about 200 feet away in a large ger, with a second ger next door with extended family in it. I spent part of the first day figuring out who everyone was and their relation to each other. I won’t go into great detail here, but basically my host mother, Enhee, is the sister of a Mongolian friend Chimgee who I met through Anu in Denver. Enhee and Chimgee’s mother is the grandmother of the camp. The grandmother bore nine children, and some of them live here, and some of her grandchildren live here. Altogether, usually there are 7-9 people in Enhee’s ger, and 5-7 people in the grandparents gers.

Enhee is the heart of the family. She keeps things running on schedule. She keeps the children safe and in line. She keeps the kitchen going making dairy products to sell and food to feed the family. She knows what needs to happen next. Her daughter Tsa Tsa or other visiting relatives pitch in with all this, but she is the motor that keeps things going. She is up at 5 am to milk the cows, and goes to bed at 11 pm after the last tasks are done. She is able to catch a few short naps through the day to keep her stamina. All the people here have their assigned role and jobs, though they can step in and help with other jobs when needed. The boys round up the animals, sort them, take them to graze, cut wood and other tasks needing muscle and physical skill. The men help get the animals tied up and ready for milking and make runs to town for supplies. They also do the killing when it is time to harvest animals. The grandmother keeps her own kitchen and household running and still milks her own animals. At 67 she can still climb the corral fence, wrestle a sheep, and keep things running at her ger. The grandfather is 78 and still scrapes the barnyard throughout the day, and helps tie up the animals at milking time. It is inspiring to see the elders so integrated and independent.

The camp sits at the bottom of a broad valley, hemmed by small forested mountains. Usually a wind comes down the valley around 3 or 4 pm carrying walls of dust and dirt. The gers are fairly open structures, so this fine dirt gets everywhere and there’s nothing to be done about it. Every day we sweep and dust, and dishes are always wiped out before use, but mostly everyone just ignores it. Animals continuously snort, whinney, run, bray, eat and converse around the gers. There are about 30 horses (5 of these get milked 5 times a day), 400 sheep and goats (70 of these get milked once a day), and 30 cows (11 get milked twice a day). Everyone, even the 3 year old kids, help with the animals. They can herd them around. I saw a tiny three year old boy with total confidence command several huge cows to get up and move. The little boys ride around on sticks as if they were horses and practice all the moves they see the older boys doing. And the older boys--they can ride like the wind! The horses are part of their bodies moving with grace and fury. They go and gather the herds for milking and bring them back after taking them to the nearby mountainside to graze. It always makes me catch my breath to watch the way they ride, command the animals, and use their lassos.